Saboteur
Any seasoned dungeon delver eventually develops a deep hatred of traps, with scars to justify it, but what if it didn't have to be that way? What if you could turn the narrow corridors and twisting passages of your next subterranean quest to your advantage for a change?
As the Saboteur, you'll make the villain curse the day they pulled half the torches off of their lair's walls to keep the place gloomy, and the traps hard to spot. Now, the party won't be the only ones who need to learn some healthy paranoia; soon, everyone will have to watch their step.
To see all of our more recent, premium content, join our Patreon, where all our spiciest new brews are at your disposal. We’re slowly remastering the highlights of our backlog, and if you’re a patron, you can vote on what gets updated next! And, if you want to ask us about our homebrew, new or old, our Discord is public and full of all kinds of brewers and internet goblins. If you’re either of those, we’d love to hear from you!
Saboteur
A Saboteur specializes in the rapid creation and deployment of arcane traps and glyphs. This is a deadly craft, capable of ensnaring and eliminating any who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Saboteur's can often find their skills and cunning contracted by militaries, hunters, and Thieves' Guilds, but just as often employ their talents for their own profit or experimentation. With the right plan and enough time to enact it, a single Saboteur can win any battle before it has even begun.
Saboteur Features
Artificer Level Features
3rd Bonus Proficiencies, Saboteur Spells, Guerilla Caster, Remote Activation
5th Exploitation
9th Battlefield Adaptation
15th Greater Traps
Bonus Proficiencies
When you adopt this specialization at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with poisoner’s kits. If you already have this proficiency, you instead gain proficiency with one type of artisan's tools.
In addition, you gain proficiency in the Stealth skill if you don't already have it. Otherwise, choose an additional skill proficiency from the Artificer’s list of available proficiencies.
Saboteur Spells
At 3rd level, you learn thorn whip or lightning lure and one additional cantrip from the artificer spell list. In addition, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Saboteur spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don’t count against the number of artificer spells you can prepare.
Saboteur Spells
Artificer Level Spells
3rd inflict wounds, sleep
5th gust of wind, shatter
9th erupting earth, stinking cloud
13th Evard’s black tentacles, hallucinatory terrain
17th cloudkill, wall of force
Guerilla Caster
As an action, you can plant a trap in an unoccupied space on the ground within 5 feet of you. The trap is a 5 by 5 square but does not occupy its space, and is hidden from any creatures that did not see you place it and have a passive Perception less than your artificer spell save DC. When you place a trap in this way, you store a prepared spell inside of that trap by casting it as part of creating the trap.
When a creature enters or starts its turn in a space, it triggers that trap and you can use your reaction to activate the trap. When you activate a trap, the stored spell is cast as if you were in the trap’s space. If the spell has a target, it targets the creature that triggered the trap. If the spell affects an area, the area is centered on that creature. If the spell would extend from the caster, the spell extends from the trap’s space, as if you were in that space. If the spell summons hostile creatures or creates harmful objects or areas, they appear as close as possible to the triggering creature and attack it. If the spell requires concentration, you concentrate on it as normal, starting from when the trap was activated. A spell targets self and does not have a range extending from the caster, the spell fails to be placed in the trap.
You must be within 300 feet of a trap to activate it, and you always know if a trap of yours is triggered, so long as you are on the same plane as it. You can have a total number of traps active at a time equal to your Intelligence modifier. If you create a trap when at this limit, the oldest relevant trap becomes inert before the new one is created.
You can make one of your traps inert by touching it as an action. If the trap contains a leveled spell when you do this, you regain the spell slot spent creating the trap, up to your spell slot maximum for that level. When you complete a long rest and regain spell slots, you can expend spell slots to keep any of your traps within 300 feet active. Each trap requires you to expend a slot of the same level you expended when you first planted it. If you don’t expend a slot for a trap in this way, it becomes inert, as the magic powering it fades. Otherwise, traps last until they are triggered or dispelled.
Remote Action
As a bonus action, you can activate a trap within 60 feet of you. When you do so, if the trap targets a creature or area, you determine a target that you can see within the spell’s normal range, treating the trap’s space as the origin point.
Exploitative
At 5th level, spells cast from your traps deal additional damage equal to your Intelligence modifier. When a creature other than you triggers one of your traps, they have disadvantage on saving throws to resist the effects of the stored spell, and if the stored spell requires any attack rolls, any attack rolls have advantage against the triggering creature.
Battlefield Adaptation
At 9th level, your traps become easier to manipulate and harder for your enemies to pin down. You can plant traps in any space within 30 feet of yourself, and you can plant traps on surfaces other than the ground, so long as that surface is at least 5 feet on each side. If the surface is moved more than 10 feet from where the trap was planted without being triggered, the trap becomes inert.
In addition, you can attempt to plant traps without other creatures noticing. You must make a successful Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check against the creature’s passive Wisdom (Perception). On a success, the creature does not notice the trap.
Finally, you can use a bonus action to move a trap planted within 30 feet of you to another space within 30 feet.
Greater Traps
At 15th level, you learn to create especially devastating traps. You can plant one of the following greater traps as an action. You can only have one greater trap planted at one time, and if you plant another, the first greater trap becomes inert as you do so. This trap can be planted in addition to your other traps, and you can move or deactivate a greater trap as normal. Once you activate a greater trap, you cannot plant or activate another until after you have completed a long rest.
Cage Trap. When a creature triggers this trap, the forcecage spell is cast from the trap with the triggering creature being in the approximate center of the cage’s area. You choose whether the cage takes the form of a cage or a box when you plant the trap.
Petrifying Trap. A creature that triggers this trap is targeted by the flesh to stone spell.
Annihilating Trap. A creature that triggers this trap is targeted by the disintegrate spell.